Costa cancelling fully paid and confirmed bookings!

I made two booking on Costa Classica two days ago: all payed and confirmed by Costa (got their pdf email confirmation). Today I received a phone call saying they had a system arrow and the price I paid is not right. They are canceling the booking or asking to pay much more.

I have already booked air ticket that I can not refund.

How something like this could happen? It's unbelievable they are doing this. Any advice you could give? Thanks in advance.

Just to add that the price paid was cheap, but did not look like an obvious mistake (about 420$ per booking).

Any advice you could give what could be done in this situation?

Wow, that is not a good scenario. If cruise lines can stop honoring fully paid confirmed bookings we are all in a heap of trouble.

Did you book through a TA? Please keep us posted as to how this turns out.

We also received a letter that the price on the website was incorrect due to technical failure! Now offer to pay five times more than was offered! I haven't found the item in the contract with the cruise company about such a situation as the reason for cancellation. Has anyone encountered similar?

In my opinion we originally paid quite normal price. Now the price does not match the Costa Classica, nor the cruise company.

For all members who have had cruises cancelled, please supply name of ship, embarkation port and date. So that we can see if it is one particular cruise or something affecting a wider area.

I also received a letter about the fact that Costa cancels the reservation because it was their fault error and asks to pay up to may 30, or the booking will be cancelled:

"We regret to inform you that, due to a clear system error, we must either cancel your booking or confirm it with the new and correct price, 17402,10 Nok.

Therefore we will cancel your booking unless you confirm your booking with the correct rate within Friday, May 30th.

For any further information or clarification don't hesitate to contact us at info-int@costa.it or 0039 010 4206099.

Thank you for your understanding

Best Regards

Costa Cruises"

Costa Classica, 22 August 2014, Heraklion

Booked through Costa web site.

Cruise itself is not canceled. Costa wants money money for already sold cabins!

Here is the email I got this morning:

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Good morning Mr. XXX

We write you with reference to your booking on Costa Classica, August 22nd 2014, file number 15XXXX.

We regret to inform you that, due to a clear system error, we must either cancel your booking or confirm it with the new and correct price, 17402,10 Nok.

Therefore we will cancel your booking unless you confirm your booking with the correct rate within Friday, May 30th.

For any further information or clarification don't hesitate to contact us at info-int@costa.it or 0039 010 4206099.

Thank you for your understanding

Best Regards

Costa Cruises

delete

I made two booking on Costa Classica two days ago: all payed and confirmed by Costa (got their pdf email confirmation). Today I received a phone call saying they had a system arrow and the price I paid is not right. They are canceling the booking or asking to pay much more.

 

I have already booked air ticket that I can not refund.

 

How something like this could happen? It's unbelievable they are doing this. Any advice you could give? Thanks in advance.

If you live in the UK then speak to your local Trading Standards - Costa should honour their error as you booked flights, etc in good faith.

Thanks! Unfortunately, I am not in the UK.

And just to reiterate, that the price paid was very good but did not look like a mistake at all. Costa often has similar promotions. I am not even sure it was just a mistake. Seems like this time they decided to increase the profit after the sale. How could we stop such unethical business practice???

I also received a letter about the fact that Costa cancels the reservation because it was their fault error and asks to pay up to may 30, or the booking will be cancelled:

 

"We regret to inform you that, due to a clear system error, we must either cancel your booking or confirm it with the new and correct price, 17402,10 Nok.

 

Therefore we will cancel your booking unless you confirm your booking with the correct rate within Friday, May 30th.

 

For any further information or clarification don't hesitate to contact us at info-int@costa.it or 0039 010 4206099.

 

Thank you for your understanding

 

Best Regards

 

Costa Cruises"

It was Costa Classica, 22 August 2014, Heraklion

And now Costa Cruises is selling our fully booked and confirmed cabins even without waiting for our response!!!

I found the specific cabin I booked on sale list on the Costa web site. According to the email we received, we need to reply by 30 May (Friday). But Costa is already offering our cabins to other clients! How unethical is it?!?!

Could anybody help with direct contacts of high level Costa management? Because then we talk to Costa they would not connect us or give contacts of the managers.

Everyone who booked with discounted prices on Costa: did you send an email to info-int@costa.it to check if you still have your booking? or they want more money for your cabin?

We read your comments about your cancellation and asked for further information and clarification from our sales department. Costa Classica’s August 22, 2014, departure was sold on our Norwegian website at an incorrect price due to a system error. We know you've received the communication about your booking cancellation. We apologize for this inconvenience. Our sales department is working to propose to you valid alternatives to resolve this issue. We kindly ask you to get in touch with our contact center via e-mail (info-int@costa.it) or by phone (00390104206099).

Go on the Christopher Elliott website he has all the e-mail addresses for darn near everybody in the travel industry..... He is a Consumer Advocate, writes for many travel Magizines.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Go on the Christopher Elliott website he has all the e-mail addresses for darn near everybody in the travel industry..... He is a Consumer Advocate, writes for many travel Magizines.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thanks so much for this information!

Costa Cruises replied here, but then deleted the message. Below is my reply.

Here it is.

We read your comments about your cancellation and asked for further information and clarification from our sales department. Costa Classica’s August 22, 2014, departure was sold on our Norwegian website at an incorrect price due to a system error. We know you've received the communication about your booking cancellation. We apologize for this inconvenience. Our sales department is working to propose to you valid alternatives to resolve this issue. We kindly ask you to get in touch with our contact center via e-mail (info-int@costa.it) or by phone (00390104206099).

Thank you very much for your reply - we appreciate attention to this unbelievable incident. We've been in contact with your sales department.

Why Costa Cruises decided 3 days after the fact of the final sale and full payment received (with a legal contract agreed by both parties and credit card payment processed) that you did not charge enough? Are you doing so badly on the financial side? Maybe we should not even try to get on-board of your ships...

The matter of facts is: you cannot discuss prices after the sale!

There are no alternatives: COSTA CRUISES HAS TO HONOR ITS LEGAL COMMITMENT. Please forward this message to your sales department.

How the situation was handled and cancellations of fully confirmed bookings and selling the paid cabins for the second time - it is not only deeply unethical, but illegal. We were insured that you legal department gave you an advise that you can do this - I am sure somebody will examine this decision.

My question is: do Costa Cruises has Ethical Department or HR department looking after the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics? Could you please send us their contact details?

Thank you!

P.S. If somebody believes that it was an innocent system error on the Costa web site, here is additional information.

We paid for the bookings in question around 30$ per day per person (btw, for Classica - the oldest ship in the fleet). Right now Costa is selling Classica 10-days cruise in June for 38$ per day per person. Costa Fortuna in November is for sale at 27$ per day per person.

Error? Yes, Costa has a system error how it handles customers and their concerns. Unfortunately....

Please note that I've been a loyal customer so far with the PEARL status and 66 nights on-board of Costa fleet. Even more: I am a Carnival Corporation & plc shareholder and really concerned by this unethical business practice.

Contact Christopher Elliott, thru his website and on Facebook. As a Travel Consumer Advocate, IF he accepts you case he does not charge for the services of his team!

Also if you paid thru a credit card you may have recourse thru them.

Make sure all your correspondence is my e-mail and documented!!!! You can NOT document a phone call, it become he said, she said.

Write up a clear time line with all the times and dates, invoices, contracts etc so that they can help without begging for info.

Good luck!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thank you so much for your valuable advice.

 

We paid for the bookings in question around 30$ per day per person (btw, for Classica - the oldest ship in the fleet).

Forgot to add: the sale at this price was open for over 2 days. Many people got affected. System error???

Rather error handling this situation...

I find Costa's actions in this matter very disturbing.

A mistake was made. However, once payment is accepted and booking confirmation issued, the line should not be able to say "Ooops, sorry we made a mistake. Please pay more, or we'll cancel the contract."

If they can do this, what's to stop a cruise line from cancelling bookings on any cruise they see is selling very well and when they figure they can 'replace' the cancelled bookings with ones at a higher rate for a greater profit?

It was Costa Classica, 22 August 2014, Heraklion

28 of may the booking was cancelled by Costa but 29 of may Costa took payment for this cruise, is this normal?

Now Costa offers a "new special price." Will this be a precedent for changing the contract price when buying other cruises in this company? And if it will touch all the cruise industry?

I think this is a dangerous situation. If Costa cancel my reservation after all, the other times Costa can do it with another client.

I would hope that common sense will take up. And management Costa will keep my contract with the first price.

I write about the cruise 8/22/2014 Costa Classica.

Now Costa starts bargaining over the price of fully confirmed and paid bookings!!!

See the email I just got.

---------------------------

Dear Madam,

We are really sorry for this situation, therefore, we come back to you with a further offer.

The full price of the cruise booked as you know would be 36.638,00Nok but due to an error in the system you found it on sale at a total of 2.335,10Nok.

We are offering you the same at a total of 5.710,00Nok + 5% costa club discount. The discount is equivalent to 69%, and the only supplement

will be 1.544,00Nok per person.

Please revert and let us know if this offer may be suitable for you, in order to reconfirm your booking.

We remain at your complete disposal,

Best Regards

Costa Cruises

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Please note that the full price - catalogue price - they quoted in the first email was 17402,10Nok (see my message #7 in this thread). How easy Costa is manipulating with prices. Even their catalogue price can go up 2 times in two days and reach $6,124 for an internal guarantee cabin for a 7 days cruise on an old ship!

Simply ridiculous! This approach is threatening the whole cruise industry. Unacceptable!

Costa Cruises: NO bargaining over sold cruises #CostaCruisesNo #cruise #illegal #unethical @costacrociere

Please help to stop this happening in the future and spread the message through social networks.